Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

MT LEBANON – McDowell has had a long tradition of Interscholastic hockey dating back to 1974 and was the host of the 1st Pennsylvania High School Hockey championships in April of 1975. Three consecutive trips to the Class AAA State finals in 1977, 1979 and 1980 resulted in losses and the Trojans have not really threatened since then. So a 2-0 start under new head coach Paul Mancini maybe brought a little optimism to Erie, but without leading scorers Mark Skirczyski [injured] and Brian Hammel [Italy], McDowell would face the defending Penguins Cup AAA champions Mt Lebanon Blue Devils, who are also off to a 2-0 start. Mt Lebanon lost a very good senior class last season and fell about five minutes short of a Pennsylvania State championship against Malvern Prep. Head coach Paul Taibi received a fresh new crop of Blue Devils to compliment a very nice returning group and early on look to be the favorites to repeat as Penguins Cup champions. The Blue Devils had breaded their success under Taibi with strictly home grown talent, who have excelled at the amateur level and now look to hone their success on the Interscholastic level with Lebo. Included in the crop this season is the ongoing saga of Josh Mandic, who ironically is from Erie and has played at the amateur level with many of the McDowell players. While Mt Lebanon does not recruit and never has, a stork dropped this player in their lap at their high school via amateur hockey and he attended school in Mt Lebanon last season and he is interested in playing for the Blue Devils. Out of 48 players ruled on for eligibility, transfers and foreign exchange status, Mandic was the only one ruled ineligible [which was made by a person with affiliation to one of Mt Lebanon’s # 1 division opponent and ‘integrity’ and maybe a ‘conflict of interest’ should have had this person dismiss themselves from the proceedings]. From my understanding of the ruling [and I helped draft the rule], the player must have court appointed guardianship, if they do not live with their natural family. Now there is a process of appeal and that is to appeal it to the President’s Commission and after that the American Arbitration Association and if Mt Lebanon wants to exhaust this, they should and there is language in the PLAYING RULES that the league is to advise and must be responsible for helping Mt Lebanon be aware of their options, but ultimately the Mt Lebanon Hockey Club must take the initiative to do so. So like Geraldo Rivera into the ‘eye of the hurricane’ I went to cover the story and THE game between Mt Lebanon and McDowell. The Mt Lebanon line of Tony Valerino, Shane Ferguson and super freshman Tyler Murovich caught McDowell sleeping on the first shift and never let them get the puck out of their zone as Valerino unleashed a wicked snap shot pasted John Cleary via a very nice feed from Shane Ferguson to the slot at 14:22. The dreaded bus legs could have been a nice excuse, but the Blue Devils were not buying it as Brandon Dornish scored on a slap shot through traffic at 11:57, which found its way through Cleary and resulted in a 2-0 Lebo lead. The Blue Devils just kept coming and kept the Trojans on their heels for much of the opening period. Mt Lebanon struck again early in the 2nd period as Tony Valerino scored on a rebound to give his team a 3-0 lead at 14:17. The Blue Devils continued to have the advantage in the score and the shots as they outshot McDowell 18-10 thru two periods and 30-14 on the evening. Valerino would put the icing on the cake in this one as the senior captain handcuffed John Cleary with an off speed wrist shot on the short side with 5:57 remaining to make the final 4-0 Mt Lebanon. Matt Vaughn posted another shutout for the Blue Devils, who have yet to yield a goal in three games this season.